Just before the House of Commons session ended for the summer period the Tories performed an astonishing U-turn on their promise to deliver electrification to the East Midlands Railway as well as several other routes.

This is a kick in the teeth for Leicestershire.

In early August I had an urgent meeting with the general secretary of the TSSA union Manuel Cortes to discuss the campaign against the electrification cancellation.

Read More

This is a very serious matter for myself and my constituents. Many constituents, have emailed and called me to voice their utter dismay at the government’s decision.

Jon Ashworth is angry at the cancellation of electrification

I have also been in touch with the City Mayor, Peter Soulsby, who has expressed to me his deep concerns. It is quite simple, Britain needs railways which are modern and up to date, commuters have said this for years as have Rail Unions and the Labour Party.

Pulling the plug on electrification shows the Tories’ disregard for Leicestershire, which will continue to suffer from underinvestment, and is yet another example of broken promises and empty slogans from this Conservative Government.

With this issue in particular having a large amount of cross party support the Government’s decision is all the more shocking and so bitterly disappointing for the people of Leicester and the East Midlands.

These were not new proposals, proposals to electrify the Midland Main Line were first made decades ago. In that time the region has seen sustained growth in population.

In spite of this the East Midlands still does not enjoy the huge benefits of an electrified lines that cities such as Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds do.

Read More

After their U-turn the Conservative government seem determined that such benefits of reliability, comfort and speed will not be felt in Leicester or the wider East Midlands regions anytime soon.

The Tories are trying to fool people by claiming that diesel bi-mode trains will deliver the same benefits as electrification, despite saying for years that failure to electrify the network costs more in the long run, causes more pollution, worsens air quality, lessens capacity and makes services slower and less reliable.

Additionally Network rail estimates that electrification and the running of electric vehicles can, in fact, help to reduce CO2 emissions by an average of 20 to 30 percent compared to their diesel counterparts and the maintenance costs for electric trains are 33 percent lower than for diesel.

Network Rail also estimates that electric passenger vehicles fuel savings are between 19 and 26 pence per vehicle mile.

Labour has committed to deliver the promised electrification, we will address the imbalance in transport infrastructure spending, committing to enhancing and expanding the rail network in order to drive economic growth and rebalance our economy. As MP for Leicester South the campaign against the electrification cancellation has my complete support.